The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-10-29
THINK FOR YOURSELF.



Their Choscn Calling.
Earnest, independent thought on the
part Of any boy or young man who has
set out to make mechanic OF himself
will certainly bring him both knowledge
and skill in his chosen calling.
We hear or see statements every littlo
while that rs machine shops gradually
grow into manufacturing concerns the
work Is systematihed until there Is
nothing but routine in the different
classes Of work, and boy apprenticed
to one of these establishments "gets no
show" In the shop, and is ''no good"
when his time is out
That graduate from, say, steam
pump shop, going to any other shop
doing different class of work, must
work for small wages, in order to "hold
n job" because lie can not take hold of
work as it comes along and do IL in
telligently. He is pictured as being
sent out of the shop to make repairs
upon steam engine. or line up shaft
in brewery, or to fix an hydraulic
elevator that is on strike.
After wasting an hour or two of
time. he admits that he is "stuck,"
and goes crestfallen back to the shop,
taking this message to tho foreman:
"Send up machinist next time" And
then the parties get their work done Mt
come other shop, and refuse to pay for
what our pump man has done, because
he did not know what he was about.
He actually caused damage by his
ignorance. Why is thisp He might
have been a good man in pump shop,
but fails Immediately on attempting
printing press or sewing machine work.
He has learned to turn and bore, to
plane and slot, to chip, file and scrapc,
but he fails when asked to perform any
OF these operations on any thing except
steam pump. Is it because he has
not learned to do these things we'll, or
because he did not use his brains while
learning to use his hands?
Machine shops are always overrun
with applicants for apprenticeship. But
nine-tenths of the applicants for places
never think of any thing beyond get
ting into the shop. Oftheir own fitness
for the machinists' trade they never in
quire into. They expect to work three
years for "a little less pay than they
could get shoveling, and then blossom
at once into tirst-class, well-paid ma
chinist, with no particular mental effort
on their part. The result is easy to see.
We see it every day in the army of
workmen who can do only the COM
monest work, and oftentimes in only a
single branch of the trade of which they
call themselves masters.
This, l claim, is from want of thought
on the part of the boy or man himself.
The steam-pump man, if he has mas
tered the trade as far as taught in the
steam-pump shop, has mastered the
principles upon which the steam-pump
operates, and is u competent man to
send out 10 repair gas engine or
a printing press, But this he can not
do without thought. and thought is but
another name for study. The study
that it takes to master the principles of
the steam-pump will incidentally bring
knowledge of other machinery that can
not fail to be of use some time.
A boy once taught the habit of indi-
vidual thinking about his work, place
in the front rank of mechanics is sure
to be his. Thought will give him con-
fidence and skill, and with these two
elements in his mechanical makeup
he will prove valuable man anywhere
he is employed, whether they build
saw-mill machinery or machine tools to
build saw-mill machinery WITH
An,e rican Machi,,ist